Many of our mining clients operate in water-scarce areas and in complex, dynamic catchments which can change throughout the life of the mine. For sustainable operations, our mining clients must optimize water use, maintain water quality standards, minimize erosion and sedimentation, and adapt to the pressures of climate change.
In this project, our mining client needed to demonstrate to regulators that it was managing water quality risks associated with its operations, particularly due to surface water runoff interacting with sensitive downstream receptors. Additionally. the water quality is influenced by complex interdependencies. This made it challenging to demonstrate regulatory compliance using conventional approaches.
As a solution, WSP proposed an innovative, automated, GIS-based risk assessment to quantify the risk to the receptors and assess the effectiveness of our client’s mitigation controls. This approach brings together our multidisciplinary services, combining surface water quantity and quality with hydrogeology disciplines and automation to assist with our client with achieving regulatory compliance.
Developing a framework to assess water risks
There is a large increase in water stewardship and operators in the mining sector are recognizing that water is both a risk and an asset, and that managing water well is important as the mine’s commodity itself.
Our experts worked in collaboration with key client stakeholders and held extensive workshops to develop a framework that captured the relevant water quality sources, pathways and receptors. We identified critical water quality indicator parameters and will expand these in future iterations of the project. For each water quality parameter, we defined the risk by applying rules to quantify the influence of the hydrogeology, topography and soil conditions on the final concentration.
To assess water quality risks, we needed to calculate and track water quality concentrations across the entire mine catchment and stream network. To demonstrate regulatory compliance, we created spatial maps showing the existing catchment risk and how these risks could be reduced with proposed mitigation controls.
Harnessing the potential of digital technologies
We developed custom Python scripts to calculate water quality concentrations and risks. This approach is highly scalable, and the relevant portions of the scripts can be isolated and improved in future work for this client. This workflow enables collaboration with the client to develop a program for future WSP studies, with outputs to be included in the scripts to improve the catchment risk assessment. By improving and expanding the Python scripts, our client can show regulators that the business is continually increasing the confidence of the results as more information becomes available.
Sarah Luu, Senior Water Resources Engineer, says “We took the client on a journey and developed a bespoke methodology to the level of detail required for regulatory submission. We used our engineering and science experience to develop a custom framework in lieu of a conventional assessment methodology.”
The scripts enable our client to identify areas of higher risk and quickly analyze options for further works to meet water quality objectives. By applying these innovative Future Ready techniques, WSP empowers our mining clients to comprehend the risks involved in their mining operations, make informed decisions, ensure regulatory compliance, and strive towards sustainable water management practices. It’s a crucial contribution to continually improve the mining sector’s social and environmental performance, and the sustainable management of our shared water resources in an increasingly uncertain climate.
